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The world that saw us together
The series "Confrontation" has been released on Channel One - a screen adaptation of Yulian Semenov's novel about Colonel Kostenko and the terrible killer Krotov. You don't have to see it, but it's a good reason to remember what films about Semenov were made before.
Magadan, late spring 1979. While out with an attractive journalist named Kira, an inventor with a metal detector discovers something completely unexpected in the woods. It is a decapitated, suspiciously mutilated body with a mysterious tattoo "DSK". Local authorities send a telegram to Moscow, and a sad Colonel Kostenko (Vladimir Vdovichenkov) goes to the distant crime scene. The workaholic investigator is not to be envied. His marriage is falling apart, he can’t catch more than half a dozen people at the police shooting range, and he doesn’t like his new assistant, a Georgian type named Tadava. They don’t look like Georgians. Having overcome an existential crisis and established a successful working relationship with his new subordinate, the Colonel reveals the name of the dead man and pursues the cold-blooded killer Krotov (Alexei Guskov). He has been committing his acts since the war. After Krotov was recruited into the German army, the villain had no peace from then on.
Of course, many have already heard this story, but the arrangement is a little different. It was performed first of all by the brilliant Leningrad director Semyon Aranovich, who in the mid-80s shot for Lenfilm the spectacular multi-part film "Confrontation" based on the work of the same name by Yulian Semyonov. Kostenko, no less an iconic hero of Yulian Semyonov than Colonel Isayev, was played by Oleg Basilashvili. It was an interesting image that interestingly changed the role of the Soviet policeman. And Andrei Voltnev, who by that time had already starred in the German masterpiece "My Friend Ivan Lapsin", unexpectedly transformed into the hunted beast Krotov. Why do we need Basilashvili and Boltnev! In the film adaptation of Aranovich, there are acting masterpieces everywhere. The entire film is a continuation of the wonderful episodes of Bekhterev, Sadalsky, Nigmatullin, Golovin, Filippenko, Kote Makharadze and many others. Particularly shocking during the viewing was the appearance on screen of Olga Bergholz's younger sister Maria, who played the role of a school teacher who liked the bestial nature of the wanted criminal.
The creators (the first title - "Author of the idea: Konstantin Ernst" - indicates that this is primarily a producer's project) position the new "Confrontation" as a more accurate screen version of the novel, which has absolutely nothing to do with it. Unfortunately, no previous film can boast of such casting and special attention to detail. On the contrary, the series seems to flaunt its misunderstanding of reality, its smooth and cute pictures (well, yes, the late stagnation is a utopian land, the world of the Soviet day) and a set of detective stories that you follow. As if on rails. Therefore, the main task is not to reveal the secrets of the criminal (why he commits atrocities, what drives him, what secrets he hides in the past), but to help a good policeman, a strong professional and an honest person. , survive life's crises. The plot is by Yulian Semenov (in his style, he carefully preserved all the not particularly remarkable features of his prose. The script was written by debutant Alexei Melnikov, whose co-author is the experienced serial producer Nikolai Popov). Director Wood Timur Alpatov Teterev), and the plot is socialist realism. The struggle between good and the best, taking place on the territory of several Soviet republics and in the soul of an ideal Soviet person, Vladimir Vdovichenkov played with some uncertainty.
I understand the intentions, but there are problems that I cannot close my eyes to. It is impossible not to recall the version by Semyon Aranovich, created under Andropov and shown on television shortly before perestroika. As the song that opens the new work says: “Everything reminds me of you, but you are nowhere to be found.” And behind all this “there was a world that saw us together.” Aranovich created a film steeped in darkness and willing to explore the secret passages of Soviet history, the social and anthropological shortcomings of the Soviet world, and also a brilliantly created film from a purely formal point of view. Every detail was taken into account, overcoming the well-known inertia and production overload of the original novel. Aranovich, who once started out as a documentary filmmaker and before that served in naval aviation, not only knew how to work with newsreels and had phenomenal directorial skills (of course, he gained a lot from collaborating with Alexei German), but also had vast worldly experience. He saw people, knew people and knew how to be surprised by them. That is why his "showdowns" have so many scenes - a card trick for 10 rubles for a naive detective, a security guard with an amazing memory and a talent for reading words backwards, Sadalsky in pants and even an indisputable masterpiece. The discovery of a corpse in a snowdrift played a terribly bad joke on Aranovich. A passenger who decided to urinate on the side of the road discovers a bag with a corpse's stump. All this is impossible to tear from memory.
The new adaptation has no chance in this sense, so the natural question arises: Why was it created? There is only one answer, but there is a conspiracy theory. Even if for some reason you have not seen it before, you will finally see the series from 1985. More modern and scary series about Russia and Russia have not yet been filmed.